Only Love Can Save You - Aria and Ezra - Pretty Little Liars - T
by eclatantly
Summary: Aria and Ezra are always there for each other and here comes the biggest test of all where love is their saving grace.


**Twelve months ago.**

* * *

Aria's hands were pinned above her head and one leg was around Ezra's waist as their kissing began to intensify.

"I love, love, love you." He whispered into her mouth.

She pulled one hand free and let it rest against his chest, lightly letting her nails scrape down his abs.

"And I love you, with my whole heart."

His right hand snuck under her shirt and gently drew lazy circles on her hipbone. Aria lifted her hips slightly into his touch as a moan fell from her lips.

Ezra shifted and quickly flipped them so that he was hovering above her. With his knees on either side of her body and his hands caressing her sides she looked up at him as if he hung the stars in the sky.

"I want you to touch me." She whispered as she guided his hand to the waistband of her denim shorts.

Without thinking about boundaries or 'oh no, we shouldn't, this isn't right', he glided his fingers inside of her denim shorts and allowed his fingers to dance on top of slightly damp panties.

He was lost in her facial expressions. The way that she was biting on her lower lip and the way that tiny moans were greeting his ears.

He gave long strokes up and down her core, feeling more dampness as his touches continued.

She gripped his shoulders for support, she needed to have something to hold her down to this world because what she was feeling was unworldly.

Wanting to touch more of her skin at all once he used his free to hand to push her shirt up her stomach.

Aria snapped out of her heavenly pleasure and jolted up quickly pushing him away by the shoulders.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push this." He could see the sheer panic in her eyes and he immediately felt guilt for not stopping it before now."

* * *

**Six months ago.**

* * *

It was one of those good nights where Aria was spending the night at Ezra's place, one of those nights where she told her father that she needed to stay over with Spencer to cram for one test or another.

He looked over at this beauty sitting on his couch who was mindlessly studying his battered copy of Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night". He still couldn't believe that he had fallen in love with someone who shared similar interests with books, movies, musical artists, and television programs. She was a rare find, a bright diamond in this often dull world.

She was so caught up in the story that she didn't even notice when he began nipping at her neck slightly under her ear. The tender flesh there was one of her weakness and he knew it, he often used it to his advantage. Aria closed the book and leaned her head to the side.

"Mm. To what do I owe this lovely treat? Hm?" Her eyes close as his nips added a touch of licking and biting.

He silenced her perfectly pink lips and lowered his hands to the hem of her shirt. Her eyes snapped open once her shirt rose a few inches.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to try and rush you yet again. I'm normally the one who remembers the lines… "

She was so upset with herself. She'd wanted to make love to her amazing boyfriend since the first moment that they met but with her fresh set of bruises now visible on her body, she knew that she couldn't.

"No!" She took his hands into hers. "It's not that, trust me. I want to, I want to more than anything else in the world, I'm just… I'm thirsty."

She smiled as though she were trying to show her conviction on the matter.

"Thirsty? Am I not nourishment enough for you, Ms. Montgomery?"

Relieved that the mood has changed, she smiled. "You're more than enough."

* * *

**Present day.**

* * *

"I think it's time."

"Time for what?" She moved her feet from his lap and got into a sitting position, slightly facing him.

"Time to tell your father about us."

"Ezra, I don't think so. I think we should wait."

"I mean, I understand that you'd think he'd be upset since I am older than you are and obviously that I'm your teacher, but we've been together for a year and a half now and I think it'd be better to not hide from your father anymore. This is a committed relationship, one that I hope will lead to something… more serious down the line. It's not fair to you, me, or us. It'd mean we could see each other more often and without constantly hiding. It's the best all around."

"I just don't think so."

Ezra sighs. "Will you at lest think about it? It'll be easier than we've been imagining, I bet. I've been thinking about this for weeks now."

"No, I wish it were that easy… " She whispers.

"What do you mean?" Ezra furred his brow and moved to hug her.

"Nothing, noth - don't worry about it." She moved to sit as far from him on the couch that she could.

"Aria, please talk to me. We've always been open and honest with each other but as of late it feels like you keep pulling away from me."

"I don't mean to, God knows I don't. You mean more to me than anyone else ever has and more than anyone else in the world ever will. I would do anything for you, do you hear me, anything. There is just something that I can't tell you. I want to but I just can't."

Once he was by her side he took her face into his hands. "Aria, look at me. I will never love anyone other than you. I would die for you, do you understand that? I would literally take a bullet for you. Please don't be afraid to tell me anything."

Tears were pooling in her eyes at this point. She spoke slowly.

"Ezra, what I'm about to tell you must stay between the two of us, do you hear me?"

He simply nodded.

"Do you remember last month when I stayed over and took a shower? You saw me in the towel and you saw - "Aria's voice cracked at this point and she was crying harder. "And you saw the bruises on my legs? I uh, I told you that…"

"Aria, you told me that you were moving more of your mother's things into the attic and you kept tripping on the pull-up ladder." He looked into her eyes and through the tears he knew this was much more serious than he had originally thought. "Aria?" His voice laden in concern and near panic.

"Or last week when we were in bed cuddling and you saw my ribs and I told you that I ran into counter in my bathroom? I didn't fall Ezra, nor did I run into anything."

"What's going on, Aria?" He was gripping the edge of his couch now, his knuckles pure white. "Is someone at school - "

Aria cut him off quickly. "Ever since my mother passed away three years ago my father has been uh… he has been hurting me."

"No. No." He was shaking his head but his mouth hung open and his heart began racing. "I've seen you without clothes on before without any bruises. No. I've seen you, Aria." He was trying to talk himself out of believing something so horrible could happen to his Aria, at the hands of her father, no less.

"It doesn't happen everyday. When you saw me like that, it was a good day at home. I'm sorry. I'm just so very sorry, Ezra." She made a move to stand but he reached out for her.

His heart was breaking. Not only had she been suffering for years, for three damn years, but that she was apologizing to him.

"I knew something was going on. I knew it. I knew things had changed but in the back of my mind I thought that maybe it was just me. Baby, oh God. I will kill that sick son of a bitch. By God, I am going to kill him."

He clutched her to his chest then, wrapping his arms around her and putting his head on top of hers. He needed her as close to him as possible and he somehow thought that by holding her this close that he would protect her from all the cruelties from the world and remove every ounce of pain that she has ever felt.

"I'm sorry." She kept repeating those words over and over again through her tears as her tiny frame shook violently.

"No, baby, don't you apologize to me. This is his fault and I don't blame you for not telling me, not for one second, do you hear me?" Ezra pulled back to look at her face.

"It's late, I need to get home."

"No!" His voice growing louder now. "You are not going to spend one more night in that house, not one. From this moment on I will not regard his authority when it comes to you. You'll be turning eighteen in just a few short weeks anyway, it's time."

"If I don't come home he'll just come looking for me, Ezra. We can't risk that."

"Let him look! He'll not find you if he's lucky. He will not hurt you again."

"I'm not worried about me right now, I'm worried about what will happen to you. You could lose your job or much worse."

"Look, I am going to handle this tomorrow. Okay? Don't worry about anything else regarding this tonight, okay?"

* * *

**The next day.**

* * *

Aria's eyes flashed open as she woke with a start. She quickly relaxed and smiled when she remembered that she was with Ezra. She turned her head to look at him but she quickly lost her smile when she saw his side of the bed was empty.

"Ezra?" She slipped out of his bed and padded through his apartment. "Ezra, where are you?"

She had just reached the living room when the front door opened as a disheveled and apparently agitated Ezra walked through it.

"Hey there, I was hoping to get back before you woke up."

"Your lip is bleeding, what happened?" She was at his side before she could take another breath. "Ezra, you didn't, did you?"

She reached her fingers softly to his lip and softly wiped away the blood that had gathered there.

"It's all taken care of, Aria. Everything. I have a majority of your things in my car, well, what I could carry anyway. I figure that you still have a key so we can go over when he's working to get what's left."

"Slow down, what do you mean everything is taken care of? What happened? Are you okay?"

He pulled her to him, cradling her in his arms. "It honestly didn't take much. I told him then I knew what he had been doing and in truth it only took a little persuasion south of jail time to get him to agree to let you leave without any further harassment. Not to mention a tarnished reputation, which he wouldn't hear of. The lip happened when he called me hypocritical for mentioning jail time and reputation." He chuckled. "I don't mind, really."

She had tears coming down her face again, but this time they were happy tears. "So, it's over? You don't know how nice it'll be to live without constantly being in fear." She was smiling now. "I can stay with you in your home?"

"You are my home, Aria. I hope you stay forever."

* * *

**Six months later.**

* * *

They quietly sat down in the familiar seats of the movie theater to see "It Happened One Night", as it was dubbed as their movie.

"I'm so glad that we're alone so that we can enjoy our movie that much more." Aria looked at her left hand once again, still overwhelmed with happiness that she and Ezra were engaged. "It's going to be a night to remember."

"For more than the obvious reasons." He smirked his devilish smile at her.

"What do you mean, Mr. Fitz?"

Without saying a word he trailed his fingers under the hem of her skirt and to her surprise and delight his fingers kept trailing their way closer and closer to the spot that needed his touch the most. His actions suddenly halted when his fingers met flesh instead of the material of her panties.

"Why Mrs. Fitz, I do believe someone has left their panties at home."

"That's future Mrs. Fitz to you, sir."

"Oh, this is going to be a very memorable night." He whispered as his lips collided with Aria's.

"Mmhmm." She moved her hand to the zipper on his jeans and deftly unzipped them and slid her hand into his boxers in one quick motion. "We'll both have a memorable night now."

He took a deep breath. "Happy two year anniversary to us."

* * *

**Fin.**


End file.
